CHEM 30B
Organic Chemistry: Reactivity and Synthesis, Part I
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30A or 30AH, with grade of C- or better. Second term of organic chemistry for Chemistry, Biochemistry, and engineering majors. Properties, synthesis, and reactions of alcohols, ethers, sulfur compounds, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and carboxylic acid derivatives. Organometallic compounds. Organic spectroscopy, including mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
hands down one of the best professors i've had at ucla. her lectures are pretty clear, explains concepts well, organized with her review session notes as well. if you do her assigned problem sets, which are difficult but prepare you well for her exams, as well as assigned book problems and look over her review session notes before a major exam, you're gonna do fine. speaking of exams, they are very fair, anything from lecture is fair game, not too easy but not too hard( average is mid 60 to low 70). also she is extremely helpful! offers extra office hours, almost every day of a midterm or final week, definitely recommend her for the 30 series, youll learn so much
hands down one of the best professors i've had at ucla. her lectures are pretty clear, explains concepts well, organized with her review session notes as well. if you do her assigned problem sets, which are difficult but prepare you well for her exams, as well as assigned book problems and look over her review session notes before a major exam, you're gonna do fine. speaking of exams, they are very fair, anything from lecture is fair game, not too easy but not too hard( average is mid 60 to low 70). also she is extremely helpful! offers extra office hours, almost every day of a midterm or final week, definitely recommend her for the 30 series, youll learn so much
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
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Most Helpful Review
What can you say...evidence why forcing researchers to teach is a recipe for disaster. I would feel better if I felt like he was making an effort. But that just isnt the case. I got an A in his class primarily as a function of how many hours I spent pouring through the book. As a lecturer he causes knowledge regression if anything. I felt more confused after leaving his lectures. Also, he is on the more difficult side to understand his accent. Best not to take him if you have any difficulties just learning from a textbook.
What can you say...evidence why forcing researchers to teach is a recipe for disaster. I would feel better if I felt like he was making an effort. But that just isnt the case. I got an A in his class primarily as a function of how many hours I spent pouring through the book. As a lecturer he causes knowledge regression if anything. I felt more confused after leaving his lectures. Also, he is on the more difficult side to understand his accent. Best not to take him if you have any difficulties just learning from a textbook.
Most Helpful Review
All I want to say is that half the time he had other professors teach his class. He would lecture on the pleasent scent of alcohol and test on alcohol reactions. If you take his class you're better off missing lecture and just teaching yourself from the book, class was a waste of time. But test material I must say was fair.
All I want to say is that half the time he had other professors teach his class. He would lecture on the pleasent scent of alcohol and test on alcohol reactions. If you take his class you're better off missing lecture and just teaching yourself from the book, class was a waste of time. But test material I must say was fair.
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